Gene Forrester as a Matured and Reflective Adult
(TH) Although many critics believe that (TSIS pivot) John Knowles portrays Gene as a childish and jealous character, the path that he sets for Gene helps him overcome his self-centered, childish mindset and become an insightful and compassionate adult who has found inner peace from his past feelings and experiences.
BP 1: Call to Adventure/Meeting with the Mentor
John Knowles’ main protagonist Gene Forrester is a student at the Devon School in New Hampshire, living a content life during World War II. An intellectual and quiet student, he surprisingly befriends his adventurous and spontaneous roommate Phineas, also known as Finny. If Robert Zajonc could comment on their friendship, he would allude
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With Gene as an inhibited, austere individual, and Finny as a zealous and sociable person, it is unlikely that the two would have been friends without an outside factor. This factor is mere exposure, meaning that Gene and Finny’s friendship is feasible due to “propinquity, the idea that one of the main determinants of interpersonal attraction is physical proximity” (Breines, “Love, Decoded”). Nonetheless, Gene’s journey begins when he follows Finny and jumps out of the tree into the river. Gene remarks, “We were best of friends at that moment” (Knowles, 18). The jump marks the beginning of Gene and Finny’s close friendship, with Finny becoming Gene’s mentor. As the two boys become closer, Gene learns to be more daring and spontaneous, often willingly following Finny on his adventurous escapades. In one instance, Finny randomly said, “Let’s go to the beach” (Knowles, 45). Even though going to the beach would cause the boys expulsion and required physical labor - the beach was hours away by bicycle - Gene still …show more content…
To deal with his guilt, Gene puts on Finny’s clothes and blurs his identity with Finny’s. Gene admits “I had no idea why this gave me such intense relief… I would never stumble through the confusions of my own character again” (Knowles, 62). In addition to putting on Finny’s clothes, he also becomes Finny’s athletic replacement, training for the Olympics as a swimmer. By doing so, Gene is trying to alleviate his guilt and escape his own self by taking on Finny’s identity. However, he only feels ephemeral succor, and begins to hate himself for causing Finny’s fall. This is comparable to Garcin from Jean Paul Sartre’s play No Exit. Garcin, who is in Hell, tries to avoid and ignore Inez and Estelle, his roommates who are there to torture him. He proposes that they “mustn’t speak. Not one word” (Sartre, 1.11). Similarly, Gene is in a figurative Hell after Finny’s accident, and tries to his ignore his test - his guilt - and live normally while Finny recovers. Gene also childishly tries to deny his feelings of guilt and feigns ignorance when he asks Finny what had happened up in the tree: “Do you remember what made you fall?” (Knowles, 66). His guilt is only stimulated again when Finny apologizes for somewhat accusing Gene for causing his fall. When Gene ultimately decides to confess to Finny that he caused his fall, Finny doesn’t believe him and vehemently refuses to believe Gene: “‘Of course
Throughout the novel Gene loses his innocence and matures under the influence of Finny. Gene gradually lets go of his childish jealousy over Finny, who he believes is superior to him and feels hatred towards. He however comes to realize what Finny’s friendship holds for him and recognizes his need to be a part of Finny. Gene first gains confidence in himself and starts maturing when he refuses to lie about his rich heritage...
Before Gene and Finny went to perform a double jump off the tree, Gene again starts contemplating ways that Finny is jealous of him. Gene states, “The thought was, You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record, but so what? He hated you for getting an A in every course but one last term. You would have had an A in that one except for him. Except for him” (Knowles 53) . Gene knew that he had an immense amount of jealousy towards Finny, so instead of trying to remove it, he comes up with a plethora of ideas to try and justify it. Gene thinks of these ideas right before he jounces the tree limb. Gene narrates, “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb(Knowles, 60). Gene’s differing feelings are expressed in a small gesture which demolishes Finny’s life. Seeing Finny fail briefly relieved Gene’s anger and jealousy. Gene says, “It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear of this forgotten” (Knowles, 60). This is the first time that Gene jumps off the tree with complete confidence. The failure of his lethal rival allows Gene to behave as Finny, and ultimately become
feels that he has to get revenge. This anger leads to Gene jouncing Finny out of the tree.
In the story, Finny created a counterpart between his athleticism and Gene’s academic abilities. Since sports came easy to Finny, he assumed that Gene was naturally intelligent and smart. Finny eventually figured out that this was not true and that his assumptions were incorrect; “‘Oh for God sake! You don’t know what I’m talking about. No, of course not. Not you…’ ‘I didn’t know you needed to study,’ he said simply, ‘I didn’t think you ever did. I thought it just came to you.’ It seemed that he had made some kind of parallel between my studies and his sports. He probably thought anything you were good at came without effort” (Knowles 57-58). Finny was unable to comprehend that some skills do not come naturally to people. Devoted friendships are a result of having an appreciation for each other. Finny and Gene did not have this nor did they truly know each other very well. A lack of understanding between the two of them provoked various disputes throughout the novel. If Gene and Finny were truly friends, misunderstandings would not have occurred since they would have acknowledged their
Finny and Gene were two very contrasting characters who both had their flaws, but in the end one was stronger than the other. On one end of the spectrum, Gene was associated with the traits of bitterness, hate, jealousy, secrecy, and he was a very loathing person. And on the other end, Finny was a light-hearted, good spirited, young, optimistic character. Gene throughout the book developed and changed extensively, and in the end came out the stronger character. Finny was definitely a crowd pleaser, but, Gene was the more solid and strong of the two because of his massive changes, making him a dynamic character.
Chapter 7: After the Fall also claims that Gene “wants to become what Finny was as a means to escape from himself”, however, the novel presents evidence that Finny was the one who tried to become Gene. The literary analysis claims Gene’s signing up for extracurricular activities and his wearing of Finny’s shirt suggest that Gene is
While Finny was known for the amazing feat of keeping his kindhearted nature throughout the story even during the stressful times of the war, which most could not do. But Leper did not. Elwin was a mild and quiet loner of a young boy, who loved snails and mystical things of nature. He was also the poster child for the carefree boys who had not yet been affected by the impending war. He was a comfort to Gene of things that would never change. Gene avoided going to Leper's old room (Brinker's new room) for the reasoning that he didn't want to see the gypsy summer truly come to an end. Leper's character development began to ascend in its climax when Leper became the first to enroll in the army. Him doing so reminded every one of their similar fate and if they would enroll as well. Also, the fact that Leper "escaped" from the military due to mental instability didn't help either. When Gene meet Leper at his home in Vermont there was a clear personality change as "He shrugged, a look of disgust with my question crossing his face. The careful politeness he had always had was gone,". (Knowles 144) Instead of kind and mild he is now aggressive and has continuing mood swings. Elwin is a completely different person and when he begins to explain his gruesome hallucinations of brooms turning into human legs and men turning into women, Gene realizes the toll the war has taken on
In the beginning of the novel, Gene, is a clueless individual. He sees the worst in people and lets his evil side take over not only his mind but also his body. During the tree scene, Gene convinces himself that Finny isn’t his friend, tricking himself into thinking that Finny is a conniving foil that wants to sabotage his academic merit. Gene is furthermore deluded that every time Finny invites Gene somewhere it’s to keep him from studying and doing well. Finny has a reputation for being the the best athlete in school, and Gene attempts to counterbalance Finny’s power by being the best student. After a while of joining Finny’s activities, Gene thinks that Finny is intentionally trying to make him fail out of school. He starts to dislike Finny and his activities, and Gene starts interrupt...
In the beginning of Something Wicked This Way Comes the story introduces Jim Nightshade and William Halloway. Jim is an ornery and impatient teenager, desperately wanting to break free from the yolk of childhood to become the adult he has always desired to be and Will wants to stay inside his comfort zone, which involves him staying a child for as long as he is able to. Something Wicked This Way Comes accurately addresses the sometimes difficult transition from adolescence into early adulthood.
The two rivers intermingle, showing the boys’ changes from immature individuals to slightly older and wiser men. Sooner or later, Gene and Phineas, who at the beginning of the novel are extremely immature, have to face reality. Signs of their maturity appear when the boys have a serious conversation about Finny’s accident. Finny realizes that Gene did shake the tree limb purposely so that he would fall. However, he knows that this action was spontaneous, and that Gene was never meant to cause him life-long grief.
Transformation becomes something that everyone needs to have happen, and Jamal and Forrester are able to do this in a way that will benefit their lives forever. In Finding Forrester a young man by the name of Jamal, a 16 year old from the Bronx turns out to be an extremely gifted writer and basketball player. He decides to hide his talent in writing from others until a dare comes up where he goes into a mysterious man's house to take something when in reality this became one of the most important moments of his life. He in a way meets William Forrester who wrote one book which happens to be extremely popular even after 40 years, although after this first book he went into hiding and no one ever saw him again. As this moves on a true friendship
In the early pages of the novel, Finny confesses that Gene is his best friend. This is considered a courageous act as the students at Devon rarely show any emotion. And rather than coming back with similar affection, Gene holds back and says nothing. Gene simply cannot handle the fact that Finny is so compassionate, so athletic, so ingenuitive, so perfect. As he put it, "Phineas could get away with anything." (p. 18) In order to protect himself from accepting Finny's compassion and risking emotional suffering, Gene creates a silent rivalry with Finny, and convinced himself that Finny is deliberately attempting to ruin his schoolwork. Gene decides he and Finny are jealous of each other, and reduces their friendship to cold trickery and hostility. Gene becomes disgusted with himself after weeks of the silent rivalry. He finally discovers the truth, that Finny only wants the best for Gene, and had no hidden evil intentions. This creates a conflict for Gene as he is not able to deal with Finny's purity and his own dark emotions. On this very day Finny wants to jump off of the tree branch into the Devon river at the same time as Gene, a "double jump" (p. 51), he says, as a way of bonding. It was this decision, caused by Finny's affection for Gene and outgoing ways that resulted in drastic change for the rest of his life.
Gene understands that Finny is unable to make a transition into adulthood when he says, “You’d get things so scrambled up nobody would know who to fight anymore. You’d make a mess, a terrible mess, Finny, out of the war” (191). Finny is unable to make an enemy out of anyone therefore preventing him from finding any real internal war to fight. Gene is already experiencing a mental and emotional battle from Finny’s fall allowing him to enter adulthood. Childhood can not thrive forever, adults cannot carry the careless characteristics of a small boy, and this is why Phineas can never made it to adulthood; he can never fully reveal an internal fight with true emotion behind it. Gene is shattered to the doctor say, “‘This is something I think boys of your generation are going to see a lot of,’ he said quietly, ‘and I will have to tell you about it now. Your friend is dead.’ He was incomprehensible” (193). Nevertheless, this marks the end of Gene’s war and grants him entrance into adulthood. Phineas’ death is the true mark that one can not be a child forever, they must find a fight inside their head that requires emotional and intellectual strength to become an
He becomes aware of Finny’s endurance, as “nothing as he was growing up at home, nothing at Devon, nothing even about the war had broken his harmonious and natural unity. So at last [Gene] had” (203). Following Finny’s death, Gene states how absolutely nothing could break Finny, not even a war. But the evilness of his shadow and unconscious self could, and cause Finny’s death. One’s shadow can be toxic when displayed to the outside world, especially when it is not in check by the individual. Gene has accepted his dark side when he admits he had been the cause of his friend’s death. In the very end of the novel, Gene finally takes responsibility for all of his shadow’s actions against his best friend, as he thinks to himself, “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (204). Gene’s transformation from the beginning of the novel to the end is clearly seen in this quotation, as he no longer denies his shadow’s existence and now claims responsibility of the darkness inside himself. He illustrates himself as being on active duty at all times at school, staying on guard for any of Finny’s tricks that may potentially cause him to fall behind in his studies. His war with Finny, whom he once
Gene jounces a limb of the tree he and Finny were standing on, causing Finny to fall and break his leg. Gene's jealousy of Finny's perfection causes him to have childish feelings of resentment and hatred. After Finny's leg was broken, Gene realized "that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between" (Knowles 51) him and Finny. Gene looked at himself and became conscious of what a terrible, self-absorbed friend he had been. Understanding there was no competition caused him to discard the majority of his feelings of jealousy. Getting rid of these feelings made him grow-up because he was no longer spending countless hours believing a childish game was being played between Finny and him. Gene began to understand more of Finny's goodness and love towards all, making him strive to be more like Finny.